XCV.
NEGRO HEROES.
No true history of the American continent can be written without giving due credit to the part which brave negro men have played on the field of battle in the defense of liberty. At the head of the list of great negro soldiers stands unquestionably Toussaint L’Ouverture, the emancipator of Hayti, the little republic to the south of the Island of Cuba. This black hero, who never saw a soldier until he was fifty years old, crossed swords with the great Napoleon, who is said to be the greatest general the world has ever known, and he outwitted that great warrior. Wendell Phillips in a great oration places the name of Toussaint at the head of the list of all the world’s great leaders and statesmen, above the name of even our own George Washington.
Next comes Crispus Attucks, who was killed in the Boston massacre on the night of March 5, 1770. His blood was the first blood shed in the cause of American independence. John Adams and Daniel Webster both date the beginning of American independence from that terrible massacre. Later on when the Revolutionary War came the negro played a valiant part and many individuals won just fame. For instance, Peter Salem and Salem Poor both distinguished themselves at the battle of Bunker Hill, and at other points. To-day a monument stands on Boston Common erected in honor of Crispus Attucks, Peter Salem, Salem Poor, Samuel Maverick and James Caldwell.
Negro Heroes.
All the boys and girls now living know about the heroism of Antonio Maceo in behalf of the freedom of Cuba, and how that brave general laid down his life for his own people shortly before the United States in 1898 took up arms in defense of Cuban liberty and drove the Spanish tyrants out. Of course there were many colored soldiers who took notable parts in the work done by our country during that short and decisive war. It is even claimed on good authority that the black soldiers saved the regiment of Rough Riders, which was commanded by the intrepid Colonel Roosevelt who afterwards became governor of New York and president of the United States.
But before the Spanish-American War the negroes had given good account of themselves on many a well-fought field—in the war of 1812 and again in the great Civil War. In the Civil War, which resulted in the restoration of the Union and the freedom of the slaves, there were 186,000 colored soldiers. To-day a monument stands on Boston Common, also, in memory of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment of United States soldiers. This was a colored regiment, which was commanded by a gallant white man named Robert Gould Shaw. He and a large proportion of his command were killed at Fort Wagner, S. C., in July, 1863.
In the Civil War we were not allowed to have our own officers, all the officers being white. In the Spanish-American War this was changed, and we had over two hundred officers, including some as high as colonels and two paymasters with the rank of majors. When another war comes we are going to have some generals as well as colonels and captains and majors. Some of the little boys who are reading these words may be called on to render this higher service for the country and the race. I hope, boys, if it should be so, that you will be prepared to give as good an account of your stewardship as those who have gone before. I hope you will learn a good deal about the lives of the great heroes above named, and about others whom I cannot stop to mention now. In this way you will gain inspiration for the future.